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Group: Overcrowding led to Menard troubles

Kurt Erickson

Oct 4, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — Too many inmates and too few guards have led to
dangerous conditions at the state’s second oldest prison, according
to a report issued Tuesday.

The report by the John Howard Association said the Menard
Correctional Center in Chester has had an “alarming” number of
staff and inmate assaults this year, primarily because the prison
has the worst inmate-to-staff ratio of all of Illinois’
maximum-security facilities.

The Chicago-based prison watchdog group said there have been 14
staff assaults since Jan. 1, including one in the prison library
that sent a correctional officer to a St. Louis hospital with
facial fractures.

“Inadequate security not only jeopardizes the physical safety of
inmates and staff, but it also undermines rehabilitation efforts
and creates a psychologically damaging environment for everyone who
lives and works behind the prison wall,” the report noted.

The organization has been exposing problems within Illinois
prisons and juvenile facilities in recent years through a series of
facility visits. Along with raising questions about overcrowding,
the group has found a number of problems within the state’s fleet
of 27 adult facilities, including inmates being housed in
potentially unsuitable settings at the Vandalia minimum-security
facility and a shortage of underwear at the medium-security
Taylorville facility.

The group says the situation could lead to a lawsuit, similar to
one that has forced California to release thousands of inmates to
relieve overcrowding.

Most of the Department of Corrections’ recent inmate management
problems stem from a surge in the prisoner population, which began
rising after Gov. Pat Quinn stopped an early inmate release program
over concerns that violence-prone prisoners were being let out on
the street. Current reports show the state is holding 49,066
inmates in a system designed to house 33,703 inmates.

Menard has 3,621 inmates in a 133-year-old facility designed to
hold less than 3,100 prisoners. It holds more convicted murderers —
more than 2,000 — than any other prison in the state.

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The association’s report, based on a June visit to Menard, found
that prison administrators placed the prison on lockdown for
roughly half of the year, meaning the inmates spend 21 to 22 hours
per day locked in their cells. That practice, the group said, has
led to a tense and more violent atmosphere within the facility.